Julia Hall Bowman Robinson (December 8, 1919 – July 30, 1985) was an American mathematician, born in St. Louis, Missouri. She completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at University of California, Berkeley, receiving the doctorate in 1948. In 1976, Robinson was elected as the first female member of the mathematical division of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1982 she was selected to be a Noether Lecturer. In 1983 she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. In addition, she was the first woman president of the American Mathematical Society. She died in Oakland, California of leukemia at the age of 65. is the 342nd day of the year (343rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Nickname: Location in the state of Missouri Coordinates: , Country State County Independent City Government  - Mayor Francis G. Slay (D) Area  - City  66. ... is the 211th day of the year (212th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Oakland redirects here. ... Leonhard Euler, considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of mathematics. ... For other uses, see Alma mater (disambiguation). ... Sather Tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ... // Alfred Tarski (January 14, 1902, Warsaw, Russian-ruled Poland – October 26, 1983, Berkeley, California) was a logician and mathematician who spent four decades as a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. ... In mathematics, a Diophantine equation is an indeterminate polynomial equation that allows the variables to be integers only. ... The word decidable has formal meaning in computability theory, the theory of formal languages, and mathematical logic. ... Yuri Matiyasevich born March 2, 1947 in Leningrad, is a Russian mathematician. ... The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) annually presents the Noether Lectures to honor women who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to the mathematical sciences. ... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution. ... is the 342nd day of the year (343rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 211th day of the year (212th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Leonhard Euler, considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of mathematics. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Missouri Coordinates: , Country State County Independent City Government  - Mayor Francis G. Slay (D) Area  - City  66. ... Sather Tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ... The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) annually presents the Noether Lectures to honor women who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to the mathematical sciences. ... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution. ... The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and education, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards to mathematicians. ... Leukemia or leukaemia (Greek leukos λευκός, white; aima αίμα, blood) is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow and is characterized by an abnormal proliferation (production by multiplication) of blood cells, usually white blood cells (leukocytes). ...

She is best known for her work on Diophantine equations and decidability which provided much of the ground work for the negative solution of Hilbert's tenth problem by Yuri Matiyasevich. In fact Robinson only strayed from this topic twice. The first was her thesis on effective solvability and unsolvability of mathematical problems. The second was in game theory where she proved that the fictitious play dynamics converges to the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium in two-player zero-sum games. In mathematics, a Diophantine equation is an indeterminate polynomial equation that allows the variables to be integers only. ... The word decidable has formal meaning in computability theory, the theory of formal languages, and mathematical logic. ... Matiyasevichs theorem, proven in 1970 by Yuri Matiyasevich, implies that Hilberts tenth problem is unsolvable. ... Yuri Matiyasevich born March 2, 1947 in Leningrad, is a Russian mathematician. ... In mathematics, solvable usually refers to the idea of a solvable group, or the corresponding idea of a solvable Lie algebra. ... For other uses, see Game theory (disambiguation) and Game (disambiguation). ... In game theory, fictitious play is a learning rule first introduced by G.W. Brown (1951). ... In game theory a mixed strategy is a strategy which chooses randomly between possible moves. ... In game theory, the Nash equilibrium (named after John Forbes Nash, who proposed it) is a kind of solution concept of a game involving two or more players, where no player has anything to gain by changing only his or her own strategy unilaterally. ... Zero-sum describes a situation in which a participants gain (or loss) is exactly balanced by the losses (or gains) of the other participant(s). ...

She married the mathematician Raphael Robinson in 1941. Her older sister, Constance Reid, is a well-known mathematical biographer. Raphael Mitchel Robinson (November 2, 1911 - January 27, 1995) was an American mathematician. ... Constance Bowman Reid is the author of several biographies of mathematicians and popular books about mathematics. ...

Further reading

• Reid, Constance (1997). Julia: A Life in Mathematics. Mathematical Association of America. ISBN 0-88385-520-8. 

External links

• National Academy of Science Biographical Memoir written by Solomon Feferman
• O'Connor, John J. & Robertson, Edmund F., "Julia Robinson", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive 
• Julia Robinson at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• GameTheory.net blurb on Robinson
• Julia Bowman Robinson on the Internet (mirror)
• A documentary about Robinson by George Paul 'Duke' Csicsery
• Noether Booklet